The Government spokesman said: “As the official residence is a listed heritage property the Australian Government must conserve and protect The Lodge.

“In accordance with Australian Government procurement rules, a tender process was undertaken to select the most appropriate slate which met particular specifications related to quality, suitability and other criteria.

“The tender did not specify any location from which the slate was to be sourced.

“The decision to award the contract for the provision of Welsh slate was made after considering all the tenders.”

The Australian Government said the decision to choose Welsh slate “was made independently of the Prime Minister or of her department” but a source close to the PM and her partner Tim Mathieson said Ms Gillard had openly supported the use of materials from the country of her birth and is understood to be delighted that her own Welsh heritage will be represented in the Prime Minister’s official residence.

The 51-year-old Australian Prime Minister has in the past attributed her battling characteristics to late father John who worked in the mining village of Cwmgwrach in the Vale of Neath.

In a heartfelt tribute broadcast on Australian television last year following his death, Miss Gillard said she clung on to her father’s hand when their family left their terraced home in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan when she was just five in 1966.

Along with her mother Moira and older sister Alison they joined the army of “Ten Pound Poms” taking advantage of a subsidised boat trip to start a new life down under.

She said she “would not be here today” if her father had not passed on to her his typically Welsh love of education.

The Lodge will join a list of well-known, highly esteemed buildings already clothed in the finest Welsh slate.

Natural stone from three different quarries owned by North Wales-based company Welsh//Slate, the world’s leading manufacturers of the material, were used to form the external walls flanking the main entrance to the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Some 2,500 tonnes of Heather Blue, Heather Red, Dark Blue Grey and Green slate were used to clad the building opened in 2004.

The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea is also clad in Welsh slate provided by the same company and the Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff Bay features extensive use of Dark Blue Grey walling and paving from Cwt-y-Bugail Quarry, Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Welsh//Slate, which employs nearly 200 people across four quarry sites in north Wales say the material they manufacturer is the toughest natural slate product known to man and has the longest lifecycle of any slate.

“It is used primarily on grade I and II listed buildings, high-end commercial schemes and self-build projects across the UK and globally,” a spokesman for the company said.

Michael Halle from Welsh//Slate could not confirm if his company would be supplying material for The Lodge, but did say: “We are currently involved with a few projects involving Australian Government buildings at the moment.”

The Lodge was only ever intended as a temporary residence and land has long been set aside for a more salubrious residence on the shores of Lake Burley-Griffin.

But no prime minister has ever been brave enough to commissions the building of the new permanent residence.

Consequently, despite ongoing maintenance, the Lodge, which is Heritage listed, has fallen into such a state of disrepair, it needs to be virtually rebuilt.

As well as a new roof building work will also see a new commercial kitchen and servery installed at The Lodge.

The plan, according to the documents “better enables future opportunities to reinstate details of the original 1920s breakfast room such as the fireplace and doorway on the south-east porch.”

The property, which has been powered by cotton and rubber-covered wiring since the 1920’s will be re-wired and asbestos in the attic, basement, scullery and eaves will be removed and “replaced with suitable fabric that is consistent with the heritage values of the place.”

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